This invention relates to a tool by which crowns in patient's mouths may be fractured and easily removed.
With the advance of denistry, it has become possible to replace a person's tooth with a crown which may be made of a metal, such as gold, or may be constructed of plastic or a ceramic, the crown being shaped like the tooth it replaces. In doing so, the common practice is for a dentist to leave the roots of the tooth which is to receive the crown in place, and to grind or otherwise remove the tooth above the gum line, leaving only a centrally located stub to be capped by the crown. In most cases, to enhance appearances, the portion of the tooth removed would extend slightly below the gum line so that the crown which is placed on the tooth would rise from a point slightly below the gum level in order that no line be showing between the tooth from the crown.
Prior to the crown being emplaced upon the remaining stub of the tooth, a cavity interiorly to the crown is filled with fast drying epoxy and then the filled cavity is inverted over the tooth stub and the crown aligned. The epoxy, being fast drying, adheres to the stub of the tooth, as well as to the interior portion of the crown, and the emplacement is complete. Of course before all work is commenced, all areas are made antiseptic.
It becomes necessary, from time to time, to remove prior placed crowns from patient's teeth because of infection, decay, or the like, of the tooth. The present method of crown removal is to split the crown in two by making three cuts or slots (actually accomplished by grinding) in the crown, vertical cuts or slots on opposite sides of the crown plus one across the top of the crown to join the other two. This tends to form a line to fracture which goes completely up and over and down the tooth. Next, the dentist will try to separate the crown into two halves along the slot formed by fracturing, either by breaking with a chisel and hammer, or perhaps by placing a screwdriver or similar tool into the slot and then twisting the screwdriver sideways.
Regardless of which method is utilized by the dentist, the pain to the patient is obviously excruciating.
It also becomes necessary from time to time for a patient's tooth to be removed where the root structure has become deformed. In the present dental practice the tooth is commonly split into two or more pieces when the tooth has more than one root in order that a portion of the tooth most directly connected to each root may be extracted separately.
Currently the practice is to fracture the tooth using a hammer and chisel directly upon the top of the tooth, or, in many cases, cutting slots in the tooth vertically on opposite sides and across the top connecting the opposite side slots at which time the dentist will then fracture with a hammer and chisel in the slot, or by turning a screwdriver sideways in the slot. The tooth then fractures along the slot lines. Again, as in crown removal, this is obviously excruciatingly painful to the patient.
It is to the easy fracturing and removal of crowns to which the subject invention is directed.